Saturday Morning Satisfaction...

By George, I think that this is going to work! I am messing with the vase/dome idea this morning. I am not telling yet what is going inside. I am flying by the seat of my pants and making it up as I go along.

I have decided to use as much recycling stuff as I can. The dome was 5.00 and the base was a .25 cent garage sale find, so I don't want to get too carried away. I am doing the infamous egg carton stone floor. I used one top lid for the entire floor.

I bent the edge of the inside top over the lip so that it looks like thick stone. Oh! And I used a circle of the foam core board that I purchased at Dollar Tree a while ago. I made it about an eighth of an inch smaller all around than the inside circumference of the glass. That was to make sure that I had room for the stonework. When the floor is finished, I will glue it to the wooden base. That will provide at non slip base for the dome.

I stained the base with Min Wax Provincial. Here you see the floor sitting on the base. This is just the egg cartons cut and glued on. I have not yet used the stylus on the seams or done any painting. That's the next step.

Last night Tessie used a whip and a chair to keep me cornered and working on her baskets...OK, so I wanted to try some of the new thread.

She volunteered to pose on the floor after I got the grout lines embossed with the stylus....We won't talk about the fact that I couldn't find the stylus and finally gave up and used the head of a crochet hook...

The basket that you see in her hands is made from the rainbow thread that she was clutching yesterday. I do like it, but I want to make a bigger one. That one was an experiment to see how big of a basket I could make with one 18" pre-cut piece of floral wire.....Not very big.

The red and green one by her side is a work in progress. Poke the picture, as usual.

I am going back now and work on both the dome and the baskets. If I know Tessie, I will be doing baskets until I am blue in the face, so I had better get started.

See you tomorrow.

"I Hate Lime Green!!!"

Well.......Tessie and I have to agree on that one. I have had the piece of the bay that is painted lime green sitting by the house all week.....It gets more bilious by the second. We also agreed that a new color should be chosen immediately, if not sooner.

I had coupons for Michael's, so off we went. I needed new Fast Grab(40% off) and we couldn't decide on a color of paint. I bought three(20% off the whole order) that I knew that I would use, one way or another. They are Charcoal Gray, Eucalyptus and Rain Gray. I am leaning towards the latter. Tessie suggested stripes.....I don't think that is going to happen.

At Walmart, I spotted this straight sided vase. The other morning on a regular decorating blog, I saw a hanging lamp made from a plain vase. A light bulb went off in my head as I was reading(no pun intended). If a vase could be a lampshade, why couldn't it be a dome?

OK....So I got sidetracked, once again.

I found a round wooden plate blank in the garage to make a base for it. I think that it will need some kind of edge around the top, but I think it will work. We shall see. Give me a couple of days.

Tessie doesn't really like it so far. Once she is in, there is no way out unless she is charged up and in zapping mode. She used up all of her zap power yesterday when I hid her wand.

Lastly, we went to "The West". It's about the only real needlework shop left in Tucson. At least it is a good one. I did learn one lesson. ***Never take a witch into a shop where there are a lot of choices.***

See that small skein of cream colored thread that is at the left side of the photo? That's what I went specifically to buy. See all of the Thread/worX over dyed floss that Tessie is sitting on and grasping in her hot little hands? She forced me to purchase that. She is a very,very bad influence.

Her reasoning was....."I need a lot of coiled baskets for the new house and I don't want them all match-y match-y."

How could I argue? It is so much more fun to not repeat colors over and over when coiling baskets.

Anyway, Tessie has picked the rainbow stuff that she is hugging for the first one. I guess I had better get to work.

See you tomorrow.

This Tape Isn't Sticking.....

Tessie got into my supplies in the workroom this morning. She wanted a new purse....Why she thought she needed sticky tape to make it, I have no idea. I turned around to see what she was talking about and saw that she had my one and only, Dennison's Transparent Tape dispenser....The tape is neither transparent or sticky.....The roll had a date right on it of 1910! Where she is holding it on top is where the tape was dispensed. You can see just a tiny bit of it sticking up. Yup. It still has tape in it. It is the color of a brown paper bag and just about as transparent.

I found it at an antique sale in Fort Lowell Park, years ago. It's the only one like it that I have ever seen. One of my favorite things.

Anyway, I took the spool of tape away from her in exchange for making her a new purse.

She specified spiders. "It has to open, so that I can carry things in it. Not one of those faked ones that just looks like a purse."

As usual, if you want to see things better, poke the photos.

You could make the purse any size and shape that you want it to be. It is basically 8 pieces of card stock and some fabric. Oh and a little bit of trim.

On the left is the pattern that I made. You want the back and the front of the purse the same size and shape. the bottom is a narrow strip to give it depth and the top flap is whatever shape you want it to be. It is 3/4" wide.

I cut out two pieces of each shape from card stock. The outside pieces were glued to the underside of the fabric with a small space for bending, between. The inside pieces are trimmed a bit smaller and covered individually with the fabric. The edges are wrapped to the back and glued down.

The two paddle shaped pieces on the right are the sides of the purse. They are simply folded over, glued and cut out. No card stock in them. They need to be flexible.

The tongue of these pieces are glued to the center bottom of the outside and the inside piece of the same shape is glued over them. Next the back inside is glued, catching the back of the side pieces between interior and exterior with glue.

The lining of the top flap is glued in place. The photo with the clips is showing how it looks when it is this far along.

Next you do the same with the front edge. Glue the interior to the side pieces, facing in, and then pull up the front exterior piece and clip. Take these stages one at a time and don't try to rush. Let the glue dry on one step before moving to the next step.


When you have the body of the purse together, You can trim it however you like. I used #5 Perle cotton and ran it around the edges as cording. I ran a piece inside the cover and around for the handle, gluing the ends inside.

I put a tiny piece of Velcro on the flap and body to close the purse.

Tessie is now happily running around the workroom experimenting with what will fit inside.....Ungrateful, as usual, she is whining and whinging, "It needs to be bigger! I can't get anything worthwhile in it." This statement was made while trying to stuff a mixing bowl, two ladles and a straw hat, side wise in the bag....Non of it stayed inside.

I guess it's back to the drawing board. Bigger purse, coming right up.....I am not stupid. If I make it big enough, she won't be able to lift it. I hid her wand so she can't zap it. I win.......For now anyway.

See you tomorrow.

Well.....It Works, In Theory.....

Continuing on with adventures in old periodicals. I went back and found the very first thing I made in miniature from the Peterson's Magazines(1863). It is called a Dormeuse. It's another one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time....At least by the inventor/designer.

You can poke the photo and read for yourself, but the idea is you put this sausage like pillow under your chin and wrap the cord around your arms whilst sitting in an easy chair....If you fall asleep, it keeps your chin from falling down onto your chest.

I couldn't resist making it in mini. Something different. If you want to make one, the instructions are in the text. Just change the measurements to 1 1/2" square and three inches for the cord. I allow extra on the cord length and adjust according to the person that is going to use it.

Of course, as soon as Tessie saw it, she had to have it....Then proceeded to complain loudly that....."It's very uncomfortable, impractical and how am I supposed to get any sleep in this position?"

I didn't even bother to answer her. I shoved the instructions under her nose and left.

As far as I know, she is still sitting there either trying to get out of the contraption or taking a nap....

Meanwhile, I converted another pattern for a netted mat to a rug pattern in mini. I left it two colors, but you could change the colors by doing the petals on the motifs two different colors for the two different motifs. The dots around the motifs could be a different color. Just be sure to keep consistency in the pattern. If you do a different color in one part do it in all and you will have a pretty rug. I purposely didn't put in a background color. You can use any color you want, so it will match the room that you put it in.

Poke the photo and it will come up larger if you want to print it out.

BTW, the center pattern is off by one stitch to the side. It seems that the original designer didn't allow for the odd number of stitches in the outer band and the even number in the patterned interior. I left it that way. I kind of liked the idea that it didn't seem to bother them that the stitch count was different.

I Left it simple. You can fancy it up as you stitch. I may just have to go see what happens with it for me.

See you tomorrow.

The Latest in 1943

I decided to play a little with a couple of the magazines from 1943. The top Better Homes and Gardens is my favorite. I love this living room on the front cover and I could probably move right in.....With a few changes.

This is the back that I was telling you about yesterday. Claudette Colbert, Veronica Lake and Paulette Goddard all endorsing Chesterfields!

Notice that they are dressed in uniforms and only holding the packages....No smoking allowed. I think that this was so that all of the armed forces would go for the cigarettes. Just a theory.

I didn't size the magazines because they would turn out different on each computer. You can grab them and put them in a program that will do that for you. I just use a greeting card program. Everyone has their favorite way of doing this. The magazines were 10" by 12 1/2".

This second one has the infamous Stuffed spam on the back. If I did this right, you can probably just cut it down to size and fold it in the middle with a few pages of copy paper in the middle.

Both of these magazines are full of wartime references and tips on how to not use metal that was needed for the troops. There is a lot about victory gardens. As you can see, the girl on the cover of this one has just picked every fresh vegetable that she could get her hands on. No Spam for her!

Here are inside spreads from each of the above magazines. I thought that it might be fun to have a magazine laying open on the table somewhere.

I realize that you can't read what is on the pages, but I have to tell you about the top one.....It is predictions of how things are going to be in the future.

For instance, did you know that by now we should be getting our milk in a package of cubes? Yup. And I quote. "The cubes, now being experimented with, are dry, wrapped, and can be kept for several weeks in the refrigerator. Drop a cube in a glass of water and there's your milk--fresh, whole milk again, without that condensed milk taste of milk from cans." It must not have worked as well as they thought it would.........

The bottom one is "We did it ourselves on So Little!" This part still hasn't changed. Decorating on a shoestring....

The last page that I wanted to show you was this one. Remember the pages that all B H and G magazines had in them for years? These could be cut out and put into their five ringed cookbook as supplementary pages.

I re sized it to 1 1//2" by 1" That gave me two pages that were 9" by 12" in mini.

I didn't cut them apart. I simply bent them in the middle. and cut several more sheets of paper the same size. I pierced the holes where the rings would go with a pin to get them started. Then I used silver metallic thread to make a 3 ringed binder. To lazy for five. You could do notebooks the same way with plain paper.

Next I glued the back pages to a piece of red card stock, leaving the rest loose.

I cut around it about 1/16" from the edge of the pages. There you have it. An open cookbook for Tessie. Poke the photo for a better view.

She happened to be sitting on the cover of the first magazine, when I noticed the red and white chair. Hey! They almost copied my black and white chairs. About the only difference is the shape of the back and the skirt is gathered instead of straight.

"No Tessie, don't look down! You will get all dizzy!" I wonder if that will keep her from noticing the chairs and wanting new ones.....

I think that she is to intrigued with the spam recipes to notice the chair. Now she is hassling me about going to the grocery store to find some spam so that she cane cook the yummy new recipes.....

See you tomorrow.

Inception.....The Dollhouse....

I realize that most people don't get excited about seeing a dollhouse in the middle of a movie like "Inception", but there was one! It was a really nice house until they opened it up to show the inside. Where the dining room would normally be, there was a small safe....The rest of the house was unfurnished. I won't tell you what they were keeping in the safe. It might ruin the plot for you. I will say that it wasn't dining room furniture in miniature.....

That is my excuse for being late with the entry today. We met up with April and she brought back some 1960s magazines that I had loaned her. They are great for getting ideas for the townhouse. I am going to shrink them down and when I do, I will put them on the blog so that you can have your very own copies.

I also have a few magazines from the 1940s that I plan to shrink also. The back covers are just as interesting as the front ones.

We have a recipe for "Stuffed Spam". Much better than turkey! The other ones have an ad for whiskey, a chiffon cake mix and last but not least, a Chesterfield Cigarette add with movie stars smoking.....All women! How times have changed!

Since I am on the subject and have no new minis to write about, I thought that I would go back another hundred years and show you my 1860s Peterson's Magazine for Women collection. These are probably the most interesting of all. I bought three years worth when I was in college and later a friend gave me a fourth one because she was allergic to the stuff that collects on old paper....They made her wheeze every time she tried to read them!

Each year was bound for safekeeping. Unfortunately, they were not safely kept and are somewhat dog eared. They do still have their hand colored prints, one a month, of the latest fashions. There are recipes for everything from cake to boot black and home remedies galore.

There are short stories, craft instruction and even dress patterns that had to be enlarged by hand. Every once in a while, I enjoy just sitting down and reading about what was happening back then. I might just have to print out a recipe or two and a household hint every now and again for you to see.

Tessie insists that she had a dress exactly like the green one in the plate opposite from her......After she announced the other day that she was one of the survivors of the Salem witch trials, I don't question her. If she says she had a green dress, I believe she had a green dress.

Since I am so late, I think that I will give up for today and come back tomorrow with no excuses and something that is actually pertinent to miniatures.

See you then.

Fast and Furious Framing....

If you are anything like me, sometimes you would like to have a framed piece of art to hang on the wall without the fuss of the miter box and saw, staining and gluing.

I woke up at 3:00AM with one of those harebrained ideas that come at that time of morning. This is what came of it.

I have 1/4" copper and lead tape and I think that you can now buy other metallic in the scrapbook section. For experimentation, I decided to use the copper. It is very easy to work with and I just cut it right from the roll as I went.

I have a bunch of microscope slides in different sizes. Some are actually medical from many years ago and others can now be purchased at Michaels in the scrap booking section.

For framing, I used the simplest methods and materials that I could find. I needed the slides, tape, some pictures and just for fun, I had some metallic strips of sticky die cuts.

I cut the cardboard and the picture to be framed, the exact size of the slide. Then, starting with two opposite ends, I wrapped lengths of the tape from the front(where I made sure that the edges were straight) around to the back. I trimmed the edges flush with the corner of the slide. I have one more edge to go on the one that Tessie is holding.

This is what the front looked like after I finished. The frames could be used just like this for a modern room, but I wanted something more traditional.

I purchased some strips of metallics at the last mini show that I attended and now I have finally found a use for them.

In the last photo, I simply laid the trims on top of the copper tape and found that they made a very convincing ornate frame.

The photo doesn't do them justice. The glass dulls the colors in the pictures. They are much brighter in real life.

So....The next time you want a fast(about 10 minutes) frame that looks pretty good, go for the tape.

I imagine that, with a little experimentation, other tapes could be used to the same end. I know that there is chrome tape available. Check out the nearest hardware store for that and other kinds to use.

I am going back and experiment some more now.

See you tomorrow.

Various and Sundry Things......

This morning I had a new visitor to the back yard. The birds were raising a ruckus. They sound an alarm whenever a predator arrives on the scene. I looked out the window and this little guy was sitting on the fence just waiting for breakfast. Of course, breakfast had all flown away.

I managed to get a couple of photos of him before he gave up and left. He is very young and not too smart. Usually the hawks hide in the branches of a tree or bush. He will learn eventually.

Anyway, I have barricaded myself in the workroom this morning. I am still reorganizing things. I will probably still be doing this particular task for the next century or two.

Unfortunately, Tessie found the Dymo Label Maker. She found out that it is easier to type on that than on the computer, so she is going hog wild with it. Somehow she managed to figure out the "symbols" tab. Then she was delighted to find that there was a spider symbol. She is now busy replacing the labels on everything.

She insists, "Everything looks sooooo much better when decorated with spiders!"

I imagine that will keep her happy for a couple of hours, so I am not objecting to the replacements. I really don't like admitting it, but somehow the spiders do add something to the labels.

As I was sorting, I found the bag of sliced branches that I got at Walmart a couple of weeks ago.

They were in the floral crafts section. At three dollars a bag, I thought that they would make a nice garden path, patio floor or maybe even a floor for a rustic cabin.

As you can see from the photo, there is enough variety of size that they will fit together with very little space between. I wet one of the pieces and they will get darker with a varnish or other finish on the surface.

I didn't even make a dent in the bag with the pieces that I fit together on the worktable in front of Spike.

I will have to glue them to a sub floor and sand the top surface to get them all exactly the same thickness. I do think that there are a lot of possibilities for these. Put your thinking caps on and come up with ideas.

They also had really nice bags of polished acorns, the same size bag and the same price. Lots and lots of birdhouses.

I need to get back in the workroom and supervise the label maker. Widget just wandered in here with a label on his nose that reads....(spider) CAT(spider). I have visions of labels on every item in the house.

Gotta go. See you tomorrow.

Just a Little Fruit.....

I can't honestly say that the morning was fruitless....I went to several garage sales, two thrift stores, the 99cent store, Michael's and my favorite antique mall.

The fruits of my labor were few and far between. I got a pile of Better Homes and Gardens Quilting magazines. So much for garage sales.There was nothing at the two thrift stores and the 99 cent store worth purchasing.

I had a 40% off one item and a 15%off the entire purchase coupon for Michael's. All I could find was a hunk of half inch thick foam core board and a piece of illustration board. What is this world coming to, when I can't find anything but white boards on which to use perfectly good coupons?

I decided that a stroll through the antique mall might help my mood......Would you believe that I spent two dollars on the candlesticks that you see in the photo....That's it. I gave up and came home with just a little fruit....

Tessie wasn't too pleased. She usually benefits from shopping trips. The candlesticks were the only things that looked promising to her. Her only comment was "Huh? You bought more table bases? I don't need more tables. I have enough tables. Why did you buy more tables?" I just walked away, to discouraged to answer.

I consoled myself with cleaning out 1/4" supplies. Tessie hung around making rude comments on how useless the tiny furniture was.

"Why would you want to make furniture so little that I couldn't use it? That's just silly."

I did stick with it and I will be able to put my hands on things for quarter inch immediately when I need something.

I have been kind of itching to do something in quarter inch for a while now. It looks like I may have to work on it in an inconspicuous, out of the way corner so that Tessie won't know about it.

On the good news side of the scale....I am almost done with the black part of the zebra skin rug. I do have a couple of inches of the white done on the left side of the photo.

Now I am trying to decide if I want to leave it just the skin or to put a black border around the whole thing. We shall see. I have to get the body of the rug done first anyway.

I am going away now to pout about my semi fruitless day. See you tomorrow.

Little Miss Muffet.....AKA Tessie's Tuffets

You may have noticed in some of the houses and scenes, there are little tuffets here and there.

I designed these a few years ago. I was wandering through Michael's one day, looking at all of the unfinished wood pieces. I saw these wheels that are meant for toys. On impulse, I bought a bag and took them home to experiment.

The tuffets were the result. The ones with the craziest fabric are the ones that were most popular at shows.

Anyway, I thought that you might like to try making your very own tuffet.

You need one wheel, some index card, a bit of bonded batting for the top, and a small piece of each of two co-ordinating fabrics and three beads for feet.

The first fabric has to be a strip long enough to fit around the wheel and overlap a bit. The second only has to cover the top and bottom circles and wrap around to the back.

The wheel that Tessie is working on is what the finished wheel should look like.

The top and bottom index card pieces, in this case were 1 1/4" diameter. Be sure to check the wheel that you use for size.

The top round should have a piece of batting cut to size. That is glued to the card with just a dab of glue to hold it whilst you wrap the fabric to the back. Clip with little Vs before wrapping to eliminate excess fabric. The bottom piece is done the same way without the batting.

If you want the top padded part to look tufted, simply sew a bead to the center pulling tightly.

Next, glue the top and bottom pieces to the wheel on opposite sides. I whip stitch them as an extra measure to be sure that they lay flat.

Then you put a trim of bunka or other cording around the top and bottom edges. Glue the three beads in an equilateral triangle on the bottom. There you have it.


The one that I did today was a double. It was an experiment to see if it would look like an old fashioned hassock. I simply glued two of the wheels together after they were covered.

I left the feet off of that one. As I remember, hassocks never had feet.

Tessie took possession as soon as it was finished and declared it suitable for eating strawberry pudding. She had four words for the traditional food, eaten whilst sitting on a tuffet. "Curds and whey? YUCK!"

She made me promise not to make a tuffet for Cordelia. She appears to have a jealousy thing going for Cordelia right now. I said that I wouldn't make her one......I didn't tell her that Cordelia already has one in her living room and one in the sewing loft. I didn't want to get anything started.

Tessie is already complaining that there is too much lace on her new clothes....Who was it that wanted more lace than Cordelia? I am not going to bring that up either. She is in an argumentative mood this morning. I am staying out of her way.

I noticed yesterday that all of the entries with Tessie aren't labeled in the list. I am going to have to go back and re label everything more accurately. Somehow that doesn't sound like fun.

Maybe I will just go make another tuffet instead.

See you tomorrow.

"I Hate Turquoise!!"

Guess who said that? Yup. It only took a couple of days for Tessie to decide that she hated the new outfit. She started in with, "Suede is toooo hot for summer." Then it was, "I can't move around in this vest....". Lastly it was, "Cordelia's apron is much nicer than this one.....I want one like hers...Only different and nicer."

Tessie found the other half of the antique handkerchief that was the material for Cordelia's apron and insisted that I use it.

I caught her repeatedly sneaking up on Cordelia's front porch, ringing the bell and hiding in the bushes. Why? "I wanted to get a good look at her apron to make sure that you didn't copy it for mine. I need much more lace."

So, rather than argue with her, I went to work and made her new clothes.....I don't think that she really needs a Millinery and Apparel Shoppe. She has me.......

Poor Cordelia is being run ragged answering the door with nobody there.

Thank goodness, Cordelia is happy with her clothes. I have to keep her separated from Tessie. I don't want her picking up ideas. Would anybody like to bet on how long it is going to take Tessie to hate the new apron? And a bet on how long it will take her to influence Cordelia........?

Today is the witches mini meeting, so I am kind of coasting.

Before I go get ready, I have to show you Mookie's latest hideout.

For the past week this has been his favorite napping place. The cat has good taste. That is my miniature, Minutiae shop that he is using as a bed. We can't figure out why, all of a sudden, this is a cat bed. Oh well. At least he hasn't tried to get into the shop through the front door lately. He used to reach a paw in and drag minis out to play with. Better that he sleeps on top than I provide him with mini toys.

I have to go get ready to go now.

See you tomorrow.

Mini Quilling For Fun.....

I did the basket yesterday,not knowing that it would get me going on minis that I had forgotten about.

When I first started in minis, there was a lady that used to come into the mini store where I worked with quilled pots, plants and other items to sell. She taught a couple of classes in quilling and I picked it up.

Then yesterday Ann Martin of "All Things Paper" http://allthingspaper-annmartin.blogspot.com/ left a comment about the basket. I went to visit and found wonderful things on her blog. If you are interested in doing anything with paper, hers is the place to see.

After looking there and remembering what we used to do with quilling, I went to the drawer where I keep quilling paper.....Mind you, I have never purchased quilling paper in a store. I just kept picking it up for a quarter or so at garage sales over the years.

This is another thing that I need to actually use, instead of just storing it in a drawer.

Soooooo......First I made a mini pot. I rolled three strips of gold paper on my handy dandy quilling machine. This was also a garage sale purchase. It is great for doing anything that needs coiling.

You slip the end of the paper into a little slot and turn the handle....In no time you have a flat coil.

After I got three pieces tightly coiled, I glued the end and slipped it off. Then I eased up the sides and made it bowl shaped. I covered the interior with glue so that the bowl would stay in shape.

Then I started cutting little slivers of green quilling paper in two shades. Simply a long diagonal on one end and flat on the other. I curled the leaves over a sharp edge and glued the flat end into the edge of the bowl....When I got all the way around, I made a loose brown coil to fit inside the center. Then I glued more leaves into that one and finally did a third smaller one in which to glue the center crown of leaves.

I took several lengths of purple and slashed them along one side. A serious quiller would do this with a little machine....I don't do it often enough to justify 50.00 for one of the machines...Fiskars scissors work well, even if they do take a little longer.

Back to the coiling machine I tightly coiled about 1 1/2" of the purple for each flower. Then I fluffed them out with my fingernail.

I tucked them into the leaves. Don't ask what kind of a plant this is.....It is just a fictional flower.

About the time I took the photo of the finished plant, to my surprise, Cordelia showed up. She has been very quiet for a while now. She took one look at the plant and said, "You have ignored me long enough, lady. I demand equal time to Tessie, Zar and especially Spike. Am I not, at the very least, more important that that silly dog?"

With that, she grabbed the bowl and added, "I want my house finished. After all, I was here before Tessie and my house is still wanting.... Your six year old's attention span is getting somewhat tiresome."

There she sits on the front porch. I believe that she has been around Tessie too much. She has officially started a long list of "Tasks that must be done immediately" for her house. That's what it says at the top of the paper she just handed to me.

Evidently that is how she thinks that she will get her house finished first.....Right. I will just put it on the pile with all of the other lists from Tessie and Zar. The stack is about six inches high now.....I will think about it tomorrow.....

See you then.

Monday Is Laundry Day.....

I wonder why Monday was picked as "official" laundry day. I mean they even wrote songs about it and embroidered it on dish towels. Why???

Since it is Monday, laundry day, I decided to make a laundry basket for Tessie.

Actually, I was cleaning out a box labeled "To Be Sorted" when I discovered three of the little baskets from Jet Dry dish washing stuff for getting rid of spots. At least that's what I think it's for. I have never used it. Someone gave them to me years ago. I hope that they still make them. The worked great.

Since I am trying to use up, as well as clean out, things in my stash, I thought that a Monday would be a good day to make laundry baskets.

All you need to do it is the bottom half of one of the little plastic gadgets, some quilling paper and paint if you want the frame of the basket to look more like wood.

I think that you could use the top half also if you wanted to go to the trouble of cutting out a bottom to fit from mat board or poster board.

Since I have three, I may try making one that looks more like plastic, but for demonstration purposes, I just did a straight basket. I painted it trail tan. Then I started weaving strips of quilling paper in and out around the spokes.

It just so happens that seven of the pieces of quilling paper fit the slots exactly. I did mine in gold and brown. You simply start inside the basket by gluing one end of a strip of quilling paper to the back of one of the spokes. Weave around, ending on the inside and overlapping the starting end. Fasten it with a drop of glue and trim the end.

When you finish the weaving, cut a couple of pieces of quilling paper about an inch long and fasten to the sides as handles. Then run a strip around the top and bottom.....Almost instant basket.

After you finish. stuff the basket with scraps of fabric and go to Sherree's website http://picasaweb.google.nl/sherree2 for the detergent box of your choice. Go down towards the bottom and hit the thumbnail for laundry supplies. It will take you to lots of choices. If you just want one box, poke the kind you want and when it comes up, you can just print it straight off of the website. I use Gain, so that was Tessie's choice.

Please notice that the basket is sitting on the finished kitchen table. That is the third coat on the top. I did two coats of the glaze to give it some depth and finished with a topcoat of Deft semi-gloss spray. With that combination, I got the mirror finish that I wanted.

Now I have to get back to the real world and do real housework....Bah Humbug!

See you tomorrow.

The Emperor's New Clothes.....

OK....So he's not the emperor. Zar still needed new clothes. His old ones were looking pretty sad.

I thought that I would throw in photos of the old ones so that you could get some idea of how they were constructed. This is not a tutorial. Each person is different and yours won't necessarily need the same size that Zar does.

The vest was cut from an old leather glove. My system is just to cut as I go. It's kind of like when they asked Michelangelo how he carved the statue of David......He replied, I simply took away the pieces that didn't look like David. Or something like that. Anyway, I start with a piece of leather about the right size and just start cutting away.

I unglued the shoulder seams so that you could see the basic, one piece, pattern. The buttons are dimensional fabric paint, dotted on the front. Basically, to put it together, I overlap the shoulder seams and glue then the front and glue. If you want to take it off later, the white glue easily pulls apart.

His shirt is basically three(+yoke and front placket). I turn under all of the edges of the front piece and glue on the placket. On the back I glue a piece for the yoke and turn under the arm holes with glue.

Yes. I turned up the sleeves before I glued it together. It is easier that way.

I glue the sleeve into a tube and slip then on. Then the back gets glued over that and last the front.

For the collar, I double a piece of fabric with glue and cut a strip the right length to fit the neck. It goes on last.

Of course, if Zar gets new clothes.....So does Tessie. She settled for an old apron, but insisted on a new turquoise suede vest with matching headband.

I only made one mistake.....I let Zar show her Hubert's Haberdashery.....

"OK. Balthazar gets a place to shop....Where am I supposed to go to get new clothes? I want a Lady's Millinery and Apparel Shoppe..." She did pronounce each word separately and they sounded capitalized to me.

She announced grandly, "You aren't required to start it until you finish the townhouse....And maybe the Clockwork Cottage and defiantly not until you start Spiderwort Manor....Let's see. What else is on the list?"

I didn't wait to find out what else was there.....The list seems to keep getting longer. Day by day.....

See you tomorrow.